I’m proud to say that I’ve been friends with Jerry Miculek for decades. I first met him at the grand old Second Chance Match, now The Pin Shoot (www.pinshoot.com) when he was a young guy with a long-barrel Smith & Wesson .357 Magnum.  Jerry now holds so many world championships he has probably lost count. He has lots of great stuff archived on YouTube.

Here, he demonstrates “things NOT to do with certain popular, classic firearms:

or watch video here.

Most serious shooters accept that Jerry Miculek is the best all-around double action revolver shooter alive, and probably the best who’s ever lived.  I certainly accept that. The revolver is his signature gun, and here he’ll share some subtleties on how not to inadvertently damage a fine wheel-gun.

or watch video here.

Please share Jerry’s vast experience and wisdom with any shooter you know whom you’ve seen make mistakes like the ones he so helpfully warns us all against.

13 COMMENTS

  1. Good videos!!!

    Now I was raised on Colt “O” and Smith “K”s many moons ago. M1 Carbines and SKS’s to. And while I feel I know a thing or two about shoot’en irons Miculek just showed me a few more!

    Especially the hazards of single loading military rifles. And I like his ‘how to treat a revolver right’ guidance.

    Very good!

  2. I always appreciate these detailed how-to snippets from one of the masters. My revolvers especially benefited from this one.
    Early on in educating myself with firearms I would scoff at the competition end as I was solely focused on the self-defense aspect. I soon grew to realize that what is a self-defense use of a firearm but the ultimate competition.
    Thank you Jerry
    Thank you Mas

  3. Jerry is also a prodigious many-time multigun national champion in several disciples, so anyone who claims he’s a revolver-only or handgun-only expert is plain wrong.

  4. Mas, regarding the advice Jerry gives in the revolver video about preventing unnecessary free cylinder rotation (by pressing at the top of the cylinder when opening, and capturing the cylinder when closing), does it apply equally to counter-clockwise turning cylinders (SW, Ruger etc.) and clockwise turning cylinders (chiefly Colt)?

    These days I’m spending my best training time with my 2020 Colt Python towards IDPA competition, and don’t want to overwork it. The cylinder stop slots are significantly scalloped on the entry side, which I hope reduces the kind of edge wear Jerry described.

      • It would apply, it is about stress on the edges of the cylinder notches.
        All firearms with free floating firing pins are more prone to slam fires (cook offs are a temperature ignition event). With even the AR15 family, I don’t release the bolt to free slam; I ease it forward and use the forward assist to close.

        Both of my 625’s are 31 years old, and used in uspsa and idpa a lot. No issues with the cylinder notches, or frame center pin hold rounding. This is due to exactly what Miculek is presenting; proper revolver handling.

      • Just heard back from Jerry, he believes his advice applies to Colt and S&W, clockwise and counter-clockwise cylinder rotation, alike.

    • I think when Jerry refers to the shallow edge of the cylinder stop notches he is referring to the sides with the scallops on them. That side has less metal and is thus more susceptible to the erosion Jerry talked about.

  5. Pressing the (thumb) latch before placing any pressure on the cylinder is obviously an excellent practice, but does anyone have any advice about doing the same when closing the cylinder? I realize that using this method to close the cylinder would be somewhat slow and cumbersome at times– during competition, or at any other times where quick reloads are critical–but these exceptions aside, would it save wear and tear on the firearm?

    Thanks for sharing these videos! Mr. Miculek’s accomplishments are unbelievable, in spite of witnessing them with one’s own eyes, and it’s great that we live in a time when such feats can be documented. And while watching him shoot is inspiring, his always positive attitude towards what he is doing is equally inspiring. He obviously loves what he does and remains passionate–at times almost childlike–full to the brim with enthusiasm, even after many decades of shooting and in spite of so many singularly remarkable accomplishments.

  6. Excellent and sound advice from a great shooter. Besides being a fantastic marksman, Jerry is also a very nice guy. I spoke with him briefly at one of the early 1980’s Second Chance bowling pin shoots when he was still a deputy sheriff with some parrish in Louisiana. Jerry used to attend these shoots with his friends and fellow deputies, Elliot and Annette Aysen and they all shot long barreled S&W model 27 revolvers. Their loads were 200 grain round nosed lead bullets in .38 Special cases launched at 1000 fps. Whenever Jerry fired his primary 8 3/8″ and backup 6″ S&W 27 revolvers, they sounded like machine guns on full auto. It would be interesting to see Jerry Miculek and Ed McGivern in a side by side shoot off.

    • In a shoot-off with Bob Munden and Sylvester Stallone (Last Rambo), too, with their blazing fast, Hollywood accurate, plow-handle single-actions. Maybe Jerry would switch to SASS for faster speed-shooting? Could just tote a dozen New York reloads for firepower.

      Nothing compares with somebody like Jerry showing that something otherwise unbelievable is possible. Too bad Doc Holliday isn’t around to give a comparison from a street-proven survivor. Maybe if Billy The Kid had had IPSC he would have made enough dollars to help him to stay out of trouble?

      • Clint Eastwood’s movie character, The Man With No Name from his spaghetti westerns would beat any fast drawer, including The Duke. His only competition would be the feminist favorite, Sharon Stone’s gunfighter character in The Quick and The Dead. Stone’s character would easily beat Eastwood’s character in a tobacco spitting contest hands down to the delight of the LTBG crowd.

    • Jerry used to come to Monroe, La. range to shoot a steel match we put on. The 8″ 27 was used quite effectively.

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